The 2017-2018 VHL season will run from September 2017 to April 2018. In the 8th edition of the championship, 27 teams will compete for victory, five of which are newcomers to the tournament. Some of them will submit to the "Vladimir Petrov Cup" - the main trophy of the championship of the Major Hockey League. Fans will know the name of the lucky one only in the spring of 2018. Until then, they can enjoy matches, many of which are worthy of the final series!
The tournament lost 4 teams at once. THC (Tver), Dynamo (Balashikha), Kristall (Saratov) and Ariadna (Volzhsk) said goodbye to the Major League. It is especially painful for hockey fans to see Dynamo, the current winner of the VHL championship, on this list. Unfortunately, HC from Balashikha fell victim to the "optimization" of the head team - Dynamo Moscow, whose farm club he was.
Instead of the departed teams, the following HCs came:
- "Gornyak" (Uchaly);
- "Metallurg" (Novokuznetsk);
- CSK VVS (Samara);
- KRS Heilongjiang (Harbin);
- « Tsen Tou» (Jilin).
Among the debutants, of course, Metallurg Novokuznetsk stands out. The legendary "Forge" was expelled from the KHL for "low game results" and poor attendance at matches with her participation. It will be interesting to see how hockey players from Novokuznetsk take root in the new championship.
Another news - the main trophy of the tournament has changed its name. Now it is called not "Bratina", but "Vladimir Petrov Cup". Thus, the organizers of the championship decided to perpetuate the name of one of the greatest Soviet hockey players Vladimir Petrov, who passed away in February 2017.
When does the Major Hockey League 2017/18 season start?
For now, sports officials remain silent. The dates for the start and end of the upcoming draw are not known. But fans of the tournament should focus on the date of the last edition: September 8, 2016 - April 18, 2017.
VHL teams 2017/18
In total, 27 hockey teams will take part in the 8th draw of the tournament:
- "SKA-Neva";
- "Falcon";
- "Torpedo";
- "Saryarka";
- "Trans-Urals";
- "Hummock";
- "Star";
- "Ermak";
- "Chelmet";
- "Oilman";
- "Dynamo";
- "Diesel";
- "Izhstal";
- "Satellite";
- "Ryazan";
- "Ruby";
- "Sarov";
- "Leopard";
- "Hammer-Prikamye";
- "Chemist";
- "Southern Urals";
- "Buran";
- "Miner";
- "Metallurgist";
- CSK Air Force;
- KRS Heilongjiang;
- "Tsen Tou".
Recent transfers in the Premier League clubs 2017/2018
Clubs are actively replenishing their squads with new players. Here is what the table of recent transitions looks like.
| Name | old team | New team |
| Konstantin Savenkov | "Arlan" (championship of Kazakhstan) | "Ruby" |
| Egor Alyoshin | "Hummock | "Ruby" |
| Kurt Gogol | "Florida Everblades"(ECHL) | "Ruby" |
| Artyom Zagidullin Artur Boltanov Artyom Ikamatskikh | Metallurg (Magnitogorsk) | "Trans-Urals" |
| Dmitry Bezrukov | "Rocket" ( MHL ) | "Sarov" |
| Mikhail Zheleznov Alexey Zakarlyukin | Amur (KHL) | "Falcon" |
| Edward X Hugo Janson | "Zemgale" ( Latvian hockey league ) | "Oilman" |
| Fedor Kukin | Hodonin (3rd Czech division) | "Oilman" |
| Maxim Alyapkin | "Torpedo | "Satellite" |
| Bruno Mraz | Zvolen (Slovak Championship) | "Metallurgist" |
| Dmitry Tsybin | "Izhstal" | Irtysh (Kazakhstan championship) |
| Sergei Banashkov | "Syryarka" | Edinburgh Capitals (British Elite Hockey League) |
VHL standings 2017-2018
From September 2017 to February 2018, the clubs will play each other in the regular season. According to its results, 16 best teams will be selected for the playoffs. Elimination games will start for them from the 1/8 finals. In the final final series, the two best PHC will meet. The winner is the one who wins in 4 matches.
So who will be the winner? standings and playoffs? Metallurg Novokuznetsk is being matched for the role of the winner of the 8th edition of the VHL. The team has been participating in the championship for a long time Continental League. The club has a huge experience of playing in matches with strong opponents. And Kuznya certainly wants to return to the KHL... But for this, the Novokuznetsk team will have to show spectacular and productive hockey in order to impress the KHL functionaries.
Hockey players of Zauralye dealt with Tseng Tou on the road, and Artem Zagidulin scored the second shutout of the season.
Mikhail Zvyagin's team was forced to enter the game in Jilin with an incomplete squad, as there was simply no one to replace Alexei Knyazev, who received a minor injury in the first period of the match with KRS Heilongjiang. Thus, only 19 field players took to the ice, and Yury Maslov got the captain's letter for one match.
Nevertheless, these problems did not spoil the mood of the Kurgans, who ran forward from the very beginning of the fight. Zauralye dominated throughout the entire opening game segment, during which the Tseng Tou players never really created problems for Artem Zagidulin. However, the defense of the Chinese team held out for a very long time, only on the 17th minute Denis Sander opened the scoring, successfully substituting his foot under the throw of Evgeny Shakurov. The judges, after a brief consultation, counted the goal - 0:1. And before the break, another puck visited Igor Tyalo's goal - Artur Boltanov was the first to finish after a click from Yanchevsky from the center of the site. 0:2.
In the second twenty-minute period, the situation on the ice remained practically unchanged. Guests created attack after attack, while not forgetting about the defense. In the 26th minute, Mark Yanchevsky rolled out unhindered in the center and sent the puck to the "nine", and after a couple of shifts, Artur Boltanov scored a double, completing a quick combination after winning a face-off - 0:4. The hosts almost immediately followed the replacement of the goalkeeper - Alexander Pechursky entered the game, who managed to stop the Kurgan pressure for some time. In addition, Zauralye was in the minority twice in a row and Tseng Tou had chances to upset Zagidulin, but it was all in vain.
In the final period, the Kurgans scored again twice, allowing nothing to be created by the wards of Alexei Akifiev. First, Denis Sander scored his second goal of the match, and then Yuri Maslov put a full stop, whose most powerful shot from the blue line Pechursky could not manage - 0:6.
This success allowed "Zaural" to rise to 16th place, earning 16 points in 10 games. The Kurgan team will play the next match on the home court on October 16, Izhstal Izhevsk will come to visit. The meeting will start at 18:30.
Tseng Tou (Jilin) - Zauralie (Kurgan) 0:6 (0:2; 0:2; 0:2)
Chief judges: Andrey Baturin, Ivan Frolov. Linesmen: Evgeny Antonov, Alexander Smirnov.
"Tseng Tou": Tyalo (Pechursky, 27:06); Grebenyuk, Polinin, Ilminsky, Popov, Eremenko, Bitkin, Guan Tianyi, Zhang Jiaqi; Shvetsov, Kasitsyn, Kamaev, Yachmenev, Polozov, Zhang Hao, Shiafotdinov, Gizdatullin, Lukin, Mitrofanov, Huang Peng.
"Trans-Urals": Zagidulin; Krotikov, Glebov, Shakurov, Maslov (K), Olshansky, Sulimov, Yanchevsky, Fast; Isaev, Pervukhin, Mushtaev, Sander, Tsyganov, Avramenko, Kolgotin, Rekhtin, Petrov, Abmetka, Boltanov.
Goals: 0:1 - Denis Sander (Boltanov, Shakurov, 16:39). 0:2 - Artur Boltanov (Shakurov, Yanchevsky, 18:17). 0:3 - Mark Yanchevsky (Tsyganov, 25:10). 0:4 - Artur Boltanov (Abmetka, Sander, 26:45). 0:5 - Denis Sander (Boltanov, 47:09). 0:6 - Yuri Maslov (Olshansky, 54:05, ball).
Penalty: 12 (Shvetsov - 2, Polinin - 4, Eremenko - 2, Mitrofanov - 2, Gizdatullin - 2) - 4 (Isaev - 2, Glebov - 2).
Clubs from China will play in the Continental, Major and Youth Leagues
On Tuesday, the Russian Hockey Federation approved the list of participants in the Major Hockey League championship in the 2017/18 season. 27 clubs will take part in the tournament and two will debut Chinese teams- "Kunlun Red Star Heilongjiang" (Harbin) and "Cen Tou" (Jilin). In addition, he is preparing for his first season in the Kunlun Red Star Junior Youth Hockey League. Thus, four clubs from China have already been incorporated into domestic hockey. Recall that since last year, Kunlun Red Star has been playing in the Kontinental Hockey League.
A year after the debut in the KHL, the Chinese entered two other Russian professional hockey leagues - the VHL and the MHL. At the same time, Kunlun Red Star has completely built a club vertical, in which KRS Junior is a youth team, and KRS Heilongjiang is a farm club. Molodezhka, like the main Red Star, will be based in Beijing, and the farm will be located in Harbin, located in Heilongjiang province (hence the name). "Cen Tou" represents the city and province of Jilin (in Manchu, Jilin), which is also located in the northeast of the country.
“With the appearance of two Chinese clubs, the championship of the Major Hockey League is entering a serious international level,” the chairman emphasized. organizing committee VHL Dmitry Kurbatov. “The geography of the Higher League is expanding,” stated FHR President Vladislav Tretyak. “This, of course, increases interest not only in the VHL itself, but also in our hockey as a whole.”
The Chinese, who have set themselves the ambitious task of raising hockey for the 2022 Winter Olympics at home, are systematically implementing their program and doing it at all levels. For example, in the next five years, about 100,000 children should be on skates and pick up sticks. The number of arenas is planned to be quadrupled - from 250 to 1,000. this moment there is an acute shortage of quality home-grown hockey players in the country. So, only two Chinese were able to get into the main team of Kunlun - defender Zak Yuen and striker Rudy Ying. While there are not enough players even for youth team and the farm club, although the personnel situation there is gradually changing for the better. According to preliminary data, 15 Chinese will play for KRS Heilongjiang, and the rest of the positions will be occupied by Russians. In KRS Junior, more than half of the 30 players who started pre-season training are Chinese. Plus players from Russia, Finland, Czech Republic, Belarus and Canada. By the way, this team is trained by Russian specialists Alexander Barkov ( Main coach), Mikhail Sarmatin and Igor Gorbenko (assistant).
Simultaneously with the development of youth hockey - it is curious that one of the junior teams of the "KRS" is based in Canada - serious funds are invested in the club playing in the KHL. The leaders of the "Red Star" do not want him to lose to everyone in a row and thereby suffer significant image losses, so in this direction they are still relying on legionnaires. Last season, Kunlun managed to put together a combat-ready squad, which immediately made it to the playoffs. And judging by the current selection campaign, in the next championship the club will be at least no weaker. The Beijingers have signed contracts with good masters, among which are the Pole Wojtek Volsky, the Swedes Richard Günge, Andreas Turesson and Magnus Hellberg, the Canadian Kyle Chipchuru, the Belarusian Andrey Kostitsyn and the Latvian Arturs Kulda. And the fact that the Canadian Mike Keenan headed the KRS is a coup, both in a professional sense and in terms of PR. Iron Mike enjoys great prestige in hockey world and already has experience in the KHL. His predecessor, Russian Vladimir Yurzinov Jr., fulfilled his role, providing a bright debut.
True, "Kunlun" will have to solve the problem of attendance. In the 2016/17 championship, the club set an anti-record in the KHL: on its home match only 550 spectators were present with the Nizhnekamsk Neftekhimik in Shanghai. In Beijing, interest in hockey was higher, but the average attendance in the regular championship was still modest - 2,952 people. This is the fourth result from the end (only Cherepovets Severstal, Khanty-Mansiysk Yugra and Novokuznetsk Metallurg have a worse similar indicator). However, in the playoffs, many more people went to Kunlun - an average of 7,150 people. Nevertheless, the KRS home arena is designed for 14 thousand spectators, so there is still work to be done with the fans.
On Tuesday, the Russian Hockey Federation approved the list of participants in the Major Hockey League championship in the 2017/18 season. 27 clubs will take part in the tournament and two Chinese teams will debut - Kunlun Red Star Heilongjiang (Harbin) and Cen Tou (Jilin). In addition, he is preparing for his first season in the Kunlun Red Star Junior Youth Hockey League. Thus, four clubs from China have already been incorporated into domestic hockey. Recall that since last year, Kunlun Red Star has been playing in the Kontinental Hockey League.
A year after the debut in the KHL, the Chinese entered two other Russian professional hockey leagues - the VHL and the MHL. At the same time, Kunlun Red Star has completely built a club vertical, in which KRS Junior is a youth team, and KRS Heilongjiang is a farm club. Molodezhka, like the main Red Star, will be based in Beijing, and the farm will be located in Harbin, located in Heilongjiang province (hence the name). "Cen Tou" represents the city and province of Jilin (in Manchu, Jilin), which is also located in the northeast of the country.
“With the advent of two Chinese clubs, the championship of the Major Hockey League is entering a serious international level,” said Dmitry Kurbatov, chairman of the organizing committee of the VHL. “The geography of the Higher League is expanding,” stated FHR President Vladislav Tretyak. “This, of course, increases interest not only in the VHL itself, but also in our hockey as a whole.”
The Chinese, who have set themselves the ambitious task of raising hockey for the 2022 Winter Olympics at home, are systematically implementing their program and doing it at all levels. For example, in the next five years, about 100,000 children should be on skates and pick up sticks. The number of arenas is planned to be quadrupled - from 250 to 1,000. Still, at the moment there is an acute shortage of high-quality home-grown hockey players in the country. So, only two Chinese were able to get into the main team of Kunlun - defender Zak Yuen and striker Rudy Ying. So far, there are not enough players even for the youth team and the farm club, although the personnel situation there is gradually changing for the better. According to preliminary data, 15 Chinese will play for KRS Heilongjiang, and the rest of the positions will be occupied by Russians. In KRS Junior, more than half of the 30 players who started pre-season training are Chinese. Plus players from Russia, Finland, Czech Republic, Belarus and Canada. By the way, this team is trained by Russian specialists Alexander Barkov (head coach), Mikhail Sarmatin and Igor Gorbenko (assistant).
Simultaneously with the development of youth hockey - it is curious that one of the junior teams of the "KRS" is based in Canada - serious funds are invested in the club playing in the KHL. The leaders of the "Red Star" do not want him to lose to everyone in a row and thereby suffer significant image losses, so in this direction they are still relying on legionnaires. Last season, Kunlun managed to put together a combat-ready squad, which immediately made it to the playoffs. And judging by the current selection campaign, in the next championship the club will be at least no weaker. The Beijingers have signed contracts with good masters, among which are the Pole Wojtek Volsky, the Swedes Richard Günge, Andreas Turesson and Magnus Hellberg, the Canadian Kyle Chipchuru, the Belarusian Andrey Kostitsyn and the Latvian Arturs Kulda. And the fact that the Canadian Mike Keenan headed the KRS is a coup, both in a professional sense and in terms of PR. Iron Mike enjoys great prestige in the hockey world and already has experience in the KHL. His predecessor, Russian Vladimir Yurzinov Jr., fulfilled his role, providing a bright debut.
True, "Kunlun" will have to solve the problem of attendance. In the 2016/17 championship, the club set an anti-record in the KHL: only 550 spectators attended its home match with Neftekhimik Nizhnekamsk in Shanghai. In Beijing, interest in hockey was higher, but the average attendance in the regular championship was still modest - 2,952 people. This is the fourth result from the end (only Cherepovets Severstal, Khanty-Mansiysk Yugra and Novokuznetsk Metallurg have a worse similar indicator). However, in the playoffs, many more people went to Kunlun - an average of 7,150 people. Nevertheless, the KRS home arena is designed for 14 thousand spectators, so there is still work to be done with the fans.
The Major Hockey League is becoming more and more international. Only it grows not with Russian clubs, not with Sibir, as many dreamed, but with Chinese ones.
Following the KHL, the “comrades from the Middle Kingdom” have now opened the second strongest Russian division. And just in the amount of two clubs.
Tower players should now be taught the names of clubs such as Kunlun Red Star Heilongjiang (Harbin) and Cen Tou (Jilin), and leaders should think about how to get there. Moreover, if Red Star Heilongjiang, as the name implies, will be the farm club of Kehael's Kunlun, then Tsen Tou will be an independent team.
Where they will find high-class hockey players in such numbers is still unknown. Last season" chinese dragons” had difficulty finding three players with Chinese roots in the KHL. From North America. Of these, only one had a permanent place in the line-up - Zak Yuen.
Naturally, there will be no Chinese players for two more Chinese clubs, and foreign players will fill the places. Let's hope that at least Russian.
After all, next season the VHL will be replaced by the joint Russian-Chinese (or Chinese-Russian) Silk Road Cup. And over time, the number of participants from the largest country in the world should be increased to ten. Plans worthy of Ostap Bender, who told Vasyukintsy about an interplanetary chess tournament.
Well, the number Russian clubs in major league everything is really shrinking. Four more clubs rested in Bose. Including last season's Bratina winner Dynamo (Balashikha), which is certainly a shame for the league. In addition to Dynamo, the home club of Ilya Kovalchuk, THC (Tver), will not play next season, which last season became the basis for the Russian team that won the Universiade. And also having rich hockey traditions Saratov "Crystal" and "Ariada-NH" (Volzhsk).
There are also newcomers: the Bashkir "Gornyak" (Uchaly) (which became the "farm" of "Avtomobilist"), the Samara CSK VVS (will cooperate with the "Lada") and Novokuznetsk "Metallurg". Of these, only the Forge, which until recently was going to play in the KHL, will be the favorite.
Among the 27 participants in the VHL championship next season are two St. Petersburg clubs - SKA-Neva and Dynamo (St. Petersburg).
Opinions
Dmitry Kurbatov, Chairman of the VHL Organizing Committee:
With the appearance of two Chinese clubs, the VHL championship is entering a serious international level. The League is getting younger, which has a positive effect on the training of personnel for the KHL, the emergence of more professional hockey players high level. Next season, we will do our best to make the championship even more interesting, unpredictable, and the financial situation of the clubs more stable.
Vladislav Tretyak, FHR President:
I think that the upcoming VHL season should be very interesting. The geography of the league is expanding, five new clubs will join the tournament. In addition to the well-known teams, which are well known to the fans - first of all, we are talking about Metallurg Novokuznetsk, of course - two Chinese teams will take part in the competition. All this, of course, increases interest not only in the league itself, but also in our hockey as a whole. Sure, new season will give us bright, unforgettable hockey confrontations, and the league will have new loyal fans - the VHL deserves it.
The composition of the participants of the VHL Championship season 2017/18:
1. Bars (Kazan)
2. "Buran" (Voronezh)
3. "Gornyak" (Uchaly)
4. "Diesel" (Penza)
5. Dynamo (St. Petersburg)
6. "Ermak" (Angarsk)
7. "Trans-Urals" (Kurgan)
8. "Star" (Chekhov)
9. Izhstal (Izhevsk)
10. Kunlun Red Star Heilongjiang (Harbin)
11. "Metallurg" (Novokuznetsk)
12. Molot-Prikamye (Perm)
13. Oilman (Almetyevsk)
14. Rubin (Tyumen)
15. "Saryarka" (Karaganda)
16. SKA-Neva (St. Petersburg)
17. Sokol (Krasnoyarsk)
18. Sputnik (Nizhny Tagil)
19. Toros (Neftekamsk)
20. "Torpedo" (Ust-Kamenogorsk)
21. HC "Ryazan" (Ryazan)
22. HC "Sarov" (Sarov)
23. "Chemist" (Voskresensk)
24. "Cen Tou" (Jilin)
25. CSK VVS (Samara)
26. Chelmet (Chelyabinsk)
27. "Southern Ural" (Orsk)